Soaked and scratched

On Monday mornings we have a staff meeting at work, to go over new business that's come in, discuss ongoing projects, and just generally touch base. We all tend to work pretty independently, because with so few of us, we all have our own specialties. So we can easily all sit in our offices and work by ourselves for days at a time. We do, of course, interact also, but it's kind of nice to sit down as a group at least once a week.

We start out the meeting by going around the table and telling what we did over the weekend--sort of "show and tell." Or "What I did on my weekend vacation."

It seems like my weekends are always the same--I work out, I do laundry, I work in the yard if the weather is nice. I run errands--library, bank, post office, grocery store--and every six weeks I get my hair cut and colored.

Today was a haircut day. I kind of enjoy it. It took me awhile to feel comfortable; I'm not very good at small talk and making conversation with people I don't know well, so making idle chat with a hairdresser is a bit stressful. I really like my stylist, and I'm completely comfortable with her now, but for the past year or so I've been having my color put on by an assistant.

My stylist is the senior stylist at the salon, so in order for her to be able to do more haircuts, when she has a color scheduled, she mixes the color, then her assistant applies it, then when that's all finished, she does the haircut. What they've been doing is having the newer stylists "intern" by assisting, so I'd have the same person two or three times, then a different one as the first one graduated to regular status, and so on. Some of them are okay, some of them I've liked, some I haven't liked at all. So it's always kind of stressful wondering who's going to be coloring my hair, and thinking about having to chat for a half hour or so with someone new.

A small thing, I know, and one of the smaller stresses in life, but still.

This morning I went in, and my stylist came up and met me and took me to her station, then went off and mixed up the color, and came back and started applying it herself. I asked her where her assistant was (the latest one was one I didn't like at all, but I had been resigned to it), and she said that she wasn't going to have them anymore. Whether that will stick or not remains to be seen, I guess, but she said she's happier doing it all, and I said well, I was definitely happier, too.

I know she was aware that I hadn't liked the previous assistant, and while she's fairly circumspect about other employees, as she should be, I got the impression that I wasn't the only person who was unhappy with the previous assistant. I never actually complained, but I did make her aware of it, for instance, the day the assistant got me totally soaked at the shampoo bowl and didn't seem very bothered about it.

And the time she scratched me with her talon-like fingernails. She didn't seem bothered by that at all, either. Just one of the hazards you face when you sign up to have your hair done, I guess.

Anyway, I was happy that I didn't have to deal with a new person this morning. Anything could happen in six weeks, I guess.